Monday, May 25, 2009

China Trip

In 7 working days we traveled to 4 cities and met professors and students from 7 universities and one research institute. The Chinese universities in 211 program receive abundant investment to update their hardware and infrastructure. The professors are busy in getting more funding and open more fancy labs. The government also invests a lot of money to send young students and professors to study in aboard. Remember, when I was a student, exchanging students had a lot of barriers. But now, China is more open and made more progresses.

Chinese students compose our graduate schools. I need students too. But if the living conditions are so in China, I think most of the young people will have a better and easier life in China than surviving in a Western country or anywhere in the world. So recruiting Chinese students will be more difficult. The English level of Chinese students will always be a problem. But they have better disciplines.

I predict that 1) China economy will continue to grow, until it reaches some boundary conditions, like available resources, population shrink, and abundant production. 2) Immigration will be more rational. Apart from political reasons and economic reasons, people immigrate to Canada to escape severe competitions. It is seen in the immigrants from South Korea. Easy life means low competitions, high social welfare and secured living standard. 3) Science and technology will be advanced. Chinese will get Nobel Prize and other medals eventually, as they dreamed. Maybe China will be more like the current Japan – good in engineering, and advanced in some disciplines. But the main driven force of innovation will still come from the West, if our students are good enough, which I am worried. 4) In the coming years, the Chinese universities will be active in seeking for international collaboration to improve their research standard.

2 Comments:

Yes, we can! If one day I receive the Nobel prize, what I want to tell others is that Noble prize is not that important. The most important thing is to be confident, humorous, and humane! But no one will take my words into account now. That is why I need to do something!

Thank you very much! Your articles are always interesting. I like them! Take care, my friend!